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Thursday, January 24, 2008

SCHIP override vote fails....AGAIN

A day late here but since I am packing and moving this week, it is what it is.

What is the definition of insanity again? Doing the same thing over and over and over again and expecting a different result could be called....INSANE.

So, lets recap recent history here right quick, before getting to the latest failed attempt in Congress to override the the second Bush veto on SCHIP.

First, Congress and the Senate passed a bad bill that allowed families not of lower income to place their children on the State Children Health Insurance Program, ass well as a significant number of adults, knowing full well that the President would veto it, which he did, and also knowing beforehand that the House did not have the votes to override the veto.

Today, the House will hold a politically-orchestrated vote to override the President’s veto of a flawed “children’s” health care bill that actually would cover illegal immigrants, adults, and families who already have health insurance. Sound familiar? It should. That’s because the House held the same vote three months ago, when the House sustained the President’s first veto of this irresponsible legislation. Today’s political games are especially disappointing since Congress voted in an overwhelmingly bipartisan fashion last month to extend the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) into 2009 and cover the program’s funding shortfall – a bill modeled on legislation introduced by House Republicans all the way back in September.

In any case, the House could have held this override vote in December after the President vetoed it, but leaders of the Majority pushed it off for more than a month in an attempt to drum up more support. Did it work? Not at all, according to today’s Congressional Quarterly:

“House Democrats will attempt Wednesday to override President Bush’s second veto of a children’s health insurance bill, but they will likely win little new Republican support, and the effort is expected to fail.”

The problems with the Majority’s most recent sham SCHIP bill are countless, but here are just a handful:

* It fails to put low-income children first. * It insures adults and illegal immigrants. * It forces some two million children from private health insurance to government-run care. * It contains a massive tax hike and district-specific earmarks and pork projects. * And according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) it even COSTS MORE and COVERS FEWER CHILDREN than the Majority’s original SCHIP legislation, which the President vetoed last fall.

During today’s debate, the Majority will say their flawed SCHIP bill is necessary because of our increasingly-uncertain economy. But what they won’t tell you, according to House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH), is that their “children’s” health care measure would actually make matters far worse for low-income families already feeling the economic strain:

“During these challenging days, it would be irresponsible to expand the SCHIP program to cover adults, illegal immigrants, and those who already have private health insurance at the expense of the low-income children who need it most. But in spite of our sluggish economy, which is making matters even more difficult for low-income families with children, that is exactly what the Majority’s flawed SCHIP bill would do.”

Last year, Democrats routinely used our nation’s children as a political football, and their strategy imploded. Apparently unfazed by their failure, they seem poised to keep on playing the political games in 2008 – and their allies on the Left seem willing to join them once again. After tens of millions of dollars – and countless hours – spent fruitlessly by House Democrats and their liberal allies, will the Majority finally acknowledge the need to work with Republicans to put low-income children first? Or will they continue to push flawed bill after flawed bill that insures illegal immigrants and adults at the expense of the low-income children both parties designed SCHIP to serve in the first place?

So, the House failed once again, starting out the new year the way they ended the last year....as failures that care more for political games than they do getting anything accomplishedin a bipartisan manner.